


Leverage

by Kisakitty



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Crimes & Criminals, F/M, Gen, References to Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 14:12:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18390023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kisakitty/pseuds/Kisakitty
Summary: This is basically the first episode of Leverage but with Riverdale. Cheryl is left broken after the loss of her brother when she is approached by a man who gives her the opportunity for revenge; all she has to do is be an honest woman amongst thieves.





	Leverage

Cheryl looked down at the glass in her hand, it was a familiar sight as the alcohol helped to cover up the pain.   
“Excuse me. Cheryl, Cheryl Blossom?”   
“Depends on who's asking,” she said as she downed her glass welcoming the familiar burn.  
“Chuck Clayton. I know who you are. I’ve uh read all about you. I know that when you found all those tax irregularities you saved your fathers company millions. Then when uh found the uh guy that was giving away company secrets you saved the company then again too. I also know that what happened to your family is the kinda thing-”  
Cheryl cut the rambling man off, bringing up what happened to her family was one of the top ways to piss her off.   
“You know this is the part of the conversation where I knee you in the balls a few times.”   
“I want to offer you a job,” the man said quickly looking scared of the fierce redhead in front of him.   
“What do you got?”  
“Do you know anything about boat design?”  
Cheryl rolled her eyes and examined her red nails, “I could give it a shot. Hand me a pencil and a ruler-”  
“Someone stole my designs.” A look of annoyance crossed his features at her joke.   
“And you want me to find them. I get it.” She gave him a patronizing smirk.   
“No, I know exactly where they are. I want you to steal them back for me.”  
“I’m not a thief.”  
“I don’t need a thief, thieves I’ve got. I need an honest woman like yourself.”  
“How sure are you that…”  
“Serpent”  
“Right. How sure are you that they stole your designs?”  
“Look my head engineer goes missing along with all my files and not even a week later Serpent announces an identical project, come on.”  
“I don’t know, stealing them back seems like a stupid risk to me. There are other ways.”   
“Listen to me, at the end of the month I have a shareholders meeting, I’ve spent countless hours and dollars on this project. If I show up to that meeting with nothing, then I’m a goner.” The man screamed desperation down to his slumped over posture.   
Cheryl sighed and started to get up, she had heard enough.   
“Look I’m serious. Look who I’ve hired.” A manila folder was forced into Cheryl’s hands and she glanced at the papers.   
“Do you recognize any of those names Ms.Blossom?”  
“Yeah, I’ve chased them all at some point. Betty?! You have Betty?”  
“Is there somebody better?”  
“No, but Betty is insane.”  
“That’s why I need you. I need an honest woman like yourself to watch the thieves.”  
Cheryl sat forward and thought about what it would take to pull off the job.   
“Are you in?”  
“It’s not going to work. These people you hired are all notorious for working alone. There’s no way they’re going to work for you.”  
“They will for $300,000 each.”   
Cheryl took a breath, that was some serious money for a low-risk heist.   
“If you run it you’ll get double. It’s all off the books. Please, I’m desperate.”   
Cheryl didn’t care about the money and that seemed to show on her face.  
“That’s just a salary, there is a bonus. Serpent is insured by your father's company. It’s a huge payout on their part. Ms.Blossom, how badly do you want to screw over the company that cost you your brother?”  
That was that Cheryl was sold.

Cheryl analyzed the blueprints on the wall in front of her. A quiet you only get when you’re up into the early hours of the morning hung in the air.   
“Ok,” she spoke adjusting the earpiece, “comm check.”   
Up on the roof of the adjacent building Jughead studied the outdated tech.   
“No, no, no, hell no. This equipment is the best of the ’80s. Only good things left from the ’80s are the movies. I’ve got something way nicer.”   
Jughead bent down to grab a small box, his signature crown shaped beanie snug on his head  
“No surprises now.” Cheryl cautioned not trusting the criminals.   
Jughead was quick with a sarcastic remark, “I’ve been doing this since high school. I’m captain discipline.”   
*****Flashback*****  
It was the night of the homecoming dance and every teen was at the school. All except Jughead who sat in an empty diner with a large strawberry milkshake in front of him, he took a gulp of it and cracked his knuckles: it was time to get to business.   
“Alright, Bank of Iceland looks like you’ll be paying for Jellybean’s hospital bills.”   
He gave a small laugh and started working on disabling the firewall.   
Jughead smiled at the memory, “it’s a bone conduction earpiece mike. It works off the vibrations in your jaw.”   
He handed one to the silent redhead behind him. The redhead, Archie, adjusted it into his ear.   
“You’re not as useless as you look,” Archie said earning a glare from Jughead.   
“I don’t even know what you do,” Jughead said in a clipped tone, causing Archie to smirk.   
*****Flashback*****  
Archie walked confidently into the small music shop. Once inside he headed toward a man surrounded by guards in the back.   
“I’m here for the merchandise,” Archie spoke glancing around the room seemingly casual. He knew the people in front of him recognized him, his fire red hair made it almost impossible to stay on the down low.   
The man chuckled and suddenly all the guards pointed their guns at him.   
Archie took a sip from his coffee and gunshots went off.   
When the smoke cleared, bodies littered the floor and Archie stood unaffected sipping his coffee. The man fearfully pulled out a football card, number 19, in a glass frame. Archie offered a smug smile. 

Archie and Jughead stood next to each other silence surrounding the two, until a small blonde hung upside down between the two boys; her ponytail and smile giving her an almost childish aura.  
“Can I have one?”   
Jughead’s breath was taken away, the girl had the most striking green eyes.   
“You can have the whole box,” he said offering them up to her.   
Betty grabbed one and held it up to observe it. After Jughead fixed it in her ear she left leaving the two boys alone again.   
“What are you going to do when she finds out you live with your mom?” Archie teased with a proud smile.   
Jughead laughed sarcastically not willing to tell the boy his past.   
“It’s the age of the geek baby,” he said and Archie pulled on a black beanie.   
“Hmm, you keep telling yourself that,” Archie walked off.   
Betty sat admiring the comm before placing it back into her ear.   
*****Flashback*****  
A young Betty watched emotionless as the man, her foster father, held up the stuffed bunny. It was the only thing she had left of her sister and she would raise hell if this man tried to take it.   
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find this?”   
The man's wife stood in the back scared. Once upon a time, Betty would’ve been scared too but that was a while ago, she had nothing left to lose.   
“You don’t get bunny until I say that you do.”  
He started to walk away but paused to say one more thing, “so be a good girl,” he smirked,“or I don’t know, a better thief.”  
The man left and the woman called out after him. Betty’s eyebrows raised taking his words as a challenge. Moments later Betty walked out of the quaint house holding the bunny close to her. Once she reached the sidewalk the house exploded behind her causing her to smile and pull the bunny in tighter.   
Betty smiled happily at the memory and continued to set up her ropes and the rest of her gear.   
Once she was all strapped in she recounted, “the last time I used this rig was Paris in 2003.”  
Neither of the boys next to her paid her any mind.   
“You’re sure this thing is safe?” Archie questioned wearily of the small device in his ear, he wasn’t the type of guy to trust without caution.   
“Are you talking about the Caravaggio? You stole that?” Cheryl’s voice came over the comms, trying to figure out if Betty really stole the painting.   
“Yeah it’s completely safe,” Jughead answered Archie completely disregarding Cheryl.   
“You know you may experience nausea, weakness in your right side, stroke, strokieness…” Jughead led off, getting back at Archie for his living with his mom comment, which caused Archie to give him a dirty look.   
“You’re exactly why I work alone,” the redhead growled at the black haired boys attempt to be funny.   
“Ok guys, we’re going on my count and not a second sooner. Betty, no freelancing.”   
Cheryl took a drink and observed the building with binoculars, the sooner this was over the sooner she could go back to her twisted way of mourning Jason.   
“Cheryl, relax we know what we’re doing,” Archie said knowing her past and trying to make this easy, he felt he owed her some respect for what she’d gone through.   
“On the count. Five, Four-”  
“Awe she doesn’t want to be our friend,” Jughead quipped.   
“On the count,” Cheryl stated firmly ignoring the boys as they had moments ago, “five, four, three”  
Betty already started running, the pull of the rope sounding against Cheryl’s voice.   
“She gone,” Archie stated running after her.   
“Son of a-”  
Cheryl was cut off as Betty let out a joyful scream as she propelled her self off the side of the building. She felt the familiar rush and her body naturally calmed, her busy mind emptied. Both boys rushed to the edge to watch her. She stopped about halfway down the building all the while Cheryl watched through the binoculars.   
“That’s 20 lbs of crazy in a 5 lbs bag,” Archie said walking away from the edge of the building. For the first time since they met, Jughead agreed with him.   
Betty was upside down staring at the glass window in front of her. She noticed a small white box with a green light.   
“Vibration detectors are on,” she stated openly to the group.   
“Alright, no cutting Betty. Use the binary.”   
Betty gave a small nod even though Cheryl couldn’t see her.   
Meanwhile, the boys rushed to grab the duffle bags next to an opening in the roof, the elevator shaft. Jughead opened the door to the opening and they let the bags down softly.   
Betty pulled out a small silver tube and got to work drawing a circle, the gel giving off a sizzling noise.   
The boys followed after their bags carefully using the ladder along the side.  
Betty attached a handle in the middle of the circle and slowly pulled it out. She let the glass fall to the ground outside, and she was left with her entrance to the office. She brought her hands through first planting them on the large wooden desk and disengaged her connection to the ropes. She pulled her body through into a handstand and then bought her legs down in front of her and then flipped off the desk, just because she could. As she landed she caught a pencil that had started rolling off and exited the room with a smug smile loving how easy the place was to break into. She carefully peeked around the corners before walking into a room marked danger: high voltage. The room was filled with wires and Betty got to work on tricking one of the elevators to move down without saying it was moving.   
As Betty did that the two boys landed on top of an elevator. Both stood there in silence until the air was filled to the brim with tension.   
“You know Betty any time you want to-” Archie was cut off as the elevator abruptly moved down.   
“The boys are on their way,” Betty stated focusing on hacking into the security cameras, her face completely serious.   
“What are you getting with security? You see security?”   
Cheryl asked Betty a little worried.   
“They don’t see a thing,” Betty smiled proudly looking at the small computer in front of her.   
The elevator finally came to a stop.   
“The doors are open,” Betty says.   
“Alright guys, show time. Here we go.” Cheryl looked at the blueprints in front of her once again.   
Jughead and Archie hurried to the server room. Jughead carefully placed a strip into the keypad that locked the room. Archie kept his eyes trained on the hall watching carefully.   
“Ok,” came Cheryl’s voice again, “you got any chatter on their frequency?”  
“No,” Betty paused, “why?”  
“There’s 8 listed on the duty roster and there’s only four at the guard post.”  
Betty stared at the screen confused, “I can’t even tell how many guys are in the room,” Betty couldn’t believe Cheryl was able to see there was only four, “how can you tell whose who?”  
“Haircuts, Betty. Count the hair cuts.” Cheryl studies the feed looking for a reason why there were only four out of eight in the room.   
Betty felt taken back, “I would’ve missed that,” she whispered.   
“What?”   
“Nothing,” Betty spoke quickly her eyes narrowing out of habit. She didn’t need to go revealing her failure, she couldn’t ever show anything other than perfection.   
“Is there a problem?” Archie questioned, turning away from watching the hallway.   
“Uh,” Cheryl was deep in thought, “Maybe. Run the cameras.”  
Jughead seemed to ignore what was going on around him. “A ten digit passcode. I salute you, sir.”  
“Really? Humor at this time?” Archie was annoyed with the antics of the lengthy boy.   
“It’s my way of relating to the world,” Jughead said with a shrug.   
Betty monitored the security cameras checking to see if she could find the four missing guards.   
“Got them!” Her voice called out, “they’re doing their walk through early. Why the-” her words became rushed.   
Suddenly things clicked for Cheryl.   
“Because it’s the playoffs,” she zoomed in on the screen in the security room showing the basketball game, “yeah. Game five of the playoffs. They’re doing their rounds an hour early so they can watch the playoffs.”   
Cheryl took a breath and continued, “Alright where are they?”  
“They’re on the stairwell,” Betty’s voice filled with urgency.   
“Ok,” Cheryl spoke her mind working quickly, “here’s what we gotta do, we have to crush them”  
Betty began to type furiously sending a high pitched ringing noise over the speakers so the security guards couldn’t use the radio.   
“Archie, what I need you to do is clear the zone, and use Jughead as bait.”  
Archie quickly unzipped his jacket and sprung into action rushing down the hallway.   
“Bait? Hold up. Wait a minute,” Jughead’s eyes were wide, this was not what he signed up for. He began mumbling to himself, “They better not be talking about me. I’m not anybody’s bait.”  
All the while his encryption tech worked on breaking the passcode.   
Jughead looked over his shoulder before Betty’s sweet voice rang out, “Jughead they’re almost there.”  
His machine was barely on the fifth digit when he decided to leave it, this wasn’t worth going to jail for, he grabbed his duffle bag and turned to leave only to be stopped by the four security guards all armed.   
“Hands up!”  
Jughead slowly raised his hands still holding onto the duffle. All the while Archie appeared behind the guards. Jughead began to let the bag fall and that’s when Archie got to work. He was able to take out all four guards before the duffle bag hit the ground. Archie stood in the middle of the knocked out men and gave Jughead a condescending smile.   
“That’s what I do.”  
Jughead gave Archie a respectable nod; a loud beep sounded letting them know they hacked the encryption.   
The door slowly opened and Jughead laughed slowly at the glowing blue data room.   
“Guy’s, you’ve got to talk to me ok,” Cheryl tried to get them to confirm, needing to know everything if she was going to pull this off.   
“It’s all good,” Jughead spoke as Archie finished placing the tied up security guards side by side in the small server room.   
Jughead spoke again, “I’m stripping the drives right now,” he paused letting the computer finish, “I got all the designs and all the backups. We’re leaving this cupboard bare.”  
“Drop the spike,” Cheryl said darkly, it was payback time.   
Jughead uploaded a virus and watched the blue lights go out in the server room.   
“Problem,” Betty spoke, “those guards you took out, they reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us. We can’t go up.”  
Archie laughed, “every man for himself dude,” he patted Jughead’s back and started to walk off.   
“Go ahead,” Jughead said smugly, “I'm the one with the merchandise.”  
“Yeah? Well, I’m the one with an exit,” Betty spoke harshly.   
“And I’m the one with the plan,” Cheryl spoke, “now I know you guys don’t work well with others but I need you to hold it together for exactly 7 more minutes. Now get to the elevator and head down. We’re going to the burn scam.”  
With that, the group kicked into gear. The two boys nodded at each other and headed to the elevator all the while Betty smiled understanding that they were resorting to their back up plan. Once in the elevator, the two boys began to unzip their duffles and change. Both taking off their beanies only Jughead took a little more care placing his inside.   
“Going to plan B,” Jughead said proudly.   
“Technically this is plan G,” Cheryl replied her tone lighter than it had been all night.   
When the elevator opened onto Betty’s floor the two boys were now dressed in business suits. Betty rushed in and without hesitation began to undress; the men quickly diverted their eyes after making eye contact.   
“How many plans do we have?” Jughead questioned, “is there a plan m?”  
“Yeah,” Cheryl said packing up the room she was in, “Jughead dies in plan m.”  
As Archie was fixing his tie he spoke, “I like plan m.”  
Jughead shot him a disgruntled look over his shoulder.   
The boys quickly got Betty ready placing a leg brace on her and doing quick makeup, it was sloppy but it was all they had to work with.   
The trio exited the elevator, Betty pretending to walk with a limp, they were greeted by a blonde man his hand over his gun.   
Archie made eye contact with him and spoke in a Brooklyn accent, “nice. Why don’t you stare more? You gotta be kidding me,”  
“Sorry.” The man said quickly adverting his eyes his hand leaving his gun.   
“No Tom, it’s ok,” Betty said playing her role trying to appear pathetic.   
“No, it’s not,” Jughead said looking at the guard with mock anger.   
The guard kept apologizing.   
“I understand,” Betty spoke making her voice crack.   
“Look what you did,” Archie said, “feel good about what you did?”  
While the trio neared the door Cheryl pulled up in her car waiting for them. Once the guard left they all hurried quickly to the car and hoped in.

The four stood in a circle as Jughead held his computer sending the files.   
“Come on, come on it’s only taking you all night,” Cheryl complained the cold getting to her making her mood worsen.   
“I’m working with a couple of wifi networks that have some crappy bandwidth,” the computer beeped, “there you go. The designs are sent.”  
Cheryl looked at each of the criminals in front of her and let out a cold breath.   
“Alright, the money will be in your accounts.”  
“Anyone else notice how well we worked together?” Jughead smiled closing his laptop.   
“Yeah well this is a one-time thing,” Archie stated and started to walk away.   
Betty smirked, “I already forgot your names.”  
Jughead glanced at the fiery red-headed mastermind. “You know it was kinda cool to be on the same side for once.”  
Cheryl felt herself become defensive, “we are not on the same side. I’m not a thief.”  
“You are now,” Betty taunted, “come on Cheryl, tell the truth. Didn’t you have a little fun playing the black queen instead of the white knight? Just this once?”  
Instead of answering he turned to leave as did the rest of the group, each parting separate ways thinking they would never see each other again.

They would see each other again when they each checked their bank accounts later that day to find they weren’t paid.

 

“Saw this girl I wanna know her name she’s got this body it’s driving me in-”

Cheryl cut off the ringtone and answered the call not fully awake.

“Yeah?”

“You screwed me!” Chucks angry voice came through the phone.

“The designs never got to me,” he continued.

“No,” Cheryl’s voice was groggy from sleep, “no I watched them go out.”

“I don’t know what you saw but I received nothing.”

“Look, I told you-you couldn’t trust them.”

Chucks tone filled with annoyance, “It wasn’t my job to trust them. That’s what you were here for! I’m freezing the payments, I’m freezing all the payments.”

Cheryl tried to calm him down, “alright look, I can come over there right now and we can straighten this out.”

“No no no no no. Do not come here. My company has an old boat facility near the docs. I’ll text you the address. Be there in one hour.” Chuck must have ended the phone call as the line went dead. Cheryl shut the phone and started to get ready.

 

Cheryl’s footsteps echoed throughout the eerie building. She made her way towards Jughead’s voice.

“Do you want to tell me what happened in there? What happened to the designs?”

Cheryl heard Archie’s voice reply.

“What makes you think I know what happened? Stupid.”

Cheryl rounded the corner to see Jughead pointing a gun at Archie.

“No, forget you. You did it when we were coming down in the elevator.”

Archie rolled his eyes completely calm if not a little annoyed, “yeah that makes sense, doesn’t it? You had the file every second.”

Archie didn’t say it directly but the accusation hung in the air.

“Woah hold up fight club I did my part. I transferred the files.”

Cheryl walked over to the boys slowly her mind working to figure everything out. Something wasn’t right.

“Hey!” She shouted and found the gun now pointed at her.

“Did you do it? You’re the only one that’s ever played both sides,” Archie accused.

“Yeah,” she sauntered up to the pair, “you seem pretty relaxed for a guy with a gun pointed at him.”

Archie didn’t take his eyes off of Cheryl, “Safety is on.”

“Like I’m going to fall for that.” Jughead rolled his eyes at how stupid Archie thought he was.

“No, he’s right. Safety is on.” Cheryl stated and as Jughead went to check the gun she grabbed it out of his hand.

“Are you armed?”

Archie looked at her, “I hate guns.”

A gun cocking sounded from behind her, when she turned she was greeted by an angry looking Betty steadily holding a gun.

“My money is not in my account,” Betty glared as she walked about the room circling the group. Cheryl followed Betty with the gun she took from Jughead, “That makes me cry inside in my special angry place.”

Cheryl approached Betty like she was a wounded animal and carefully took the gun from her hands.

“Ok Betty,” she kept her voice smooth, “did you come here to get paid?”

“Hell no, transfer of funds. Global economy.” Jughead said in a snobbish tone.

Archie spoke quickly after. “It was supposed to be a walk away. I’m never supposed to see you again.”

Cheryl’s mind started processing the information, she couldn’t help but feel she was missing something.

“The only reason you guys are here is because you didn’t get paid,” Cheryl let out a hysterical laugh, “and you're pissed off right?”

The others looked at Cheryl trying to figure out why she was laughing.

“I mean, the matter of fact, the only way to get us all in the same place at the same time is to tell us… we’re not… getting… paid.”

Suddenly it clicked for the group, it was a trap. In a split second, they all darted toward the door running as fast as they could. Cheryl was followed closely by Betty and Jughead wasn’t far behind them when he tripped, Archie quickly grabs him by his leather jacket and hauls him up and they quickly catch up with the girls. They’re barely out of the building when it explodes sending them flying and rendering them all unconscious.

 

Cheryl forced her eyelids open and tried to sit up, the handcuffs that connected her to the hospital bed prevented her movement. She let out a groan and let her head fall back onto the pillow.

“You don’t like hospitals,” Archie stated smiling.

Cheryl took a look around, there was a phone ringing in the distance and someone spoke on the sound system but she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

“Not much,” she kept looking around trying to gather information on her surroundings.

“It’s about time,” Betty’s voice drifted through the air vent between their two rooms.

“What the?”

“Cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up,” Betty played with her handcuffs that she had gotten out of almost immediately after they were put on.

“Where are we?” Cheryl asked her mind still a little hazy.

“We’re at a county hospital, local cops responded to the explosion.” Jughead sat cross-legged on the hospital bed his handcuffs still on. He watched Betty pace the room and made a get these off of me gesture to Betty who simply ignored him.

“Have we been processed?” Cheryl turned towards Archie who was slumped over in an uncomfortable looking hospital chair, he stopped playing with his hand and waved his darkened finger prints at Cheryl. She looked down at her own dark fingers and frowned.

“They faxed our prints to the state police,” Archie spoke his tone even. “If they run us we’re screwed.”

Jughead’s statement had Betty’s head snapping to look at him.

“How long do we have?” She asked as her eyes narrowed.

“30-35 minutes depending on the software.”

Archie felt his annoyance seep into his tone, “they printed us 20 minutes ago. So unless we get out of here in the next 10 minutes we all go to jail.”

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Cheryl already knew all of this.

“I can take these cops,” Archie said lowly while rolling his neck.

Betty rolled her eyes annoyed, “don’t you dare. You kill anyone and you screw up my get away.”

Jughead scoffed, “hold up I’m still handcuffed here. I can’t even go to the bathroom and I gotta go.”

“Betty,” Cheryl forced out, still in pain, “get me a phone. We’re going to get out of here together.”

“That was a one time deal,” Archie spoke slumped in the chair he was handcuffed to.

Cheryl rolled her eyes, “look here’s your guys’ problem you all know what you can do, but I know what all of you can do. So that gives ME the edge and it gives ME the plan.”

“I don’t trust these guys,” Betty spoke her arms subtly uncrossing unease colored her words.

Cheryl was quiet for a moment. “Do you trust me?”

The question lingered in the air driving Betty into silence.

“Of course,” Archie smiled, “you’re an honest woman.”

“Betty phone.”

“This is going to suck,” Betty quickly leaned over and forced herself to throw up.

Jughead turned away suddenly finding the ceiling interesting.

“Oh no. Oh hell no.” Jughead spoke trying to drown out the gagging noises.

 

The doctor pulled the thermometer out of Betty’s mouth and handed it to the nurse standing by.

“Hmmm. Nausea could mean a concussion. If you feel any more effects or blurred vision tell the policemen right away.”

Betty gave the doctor and innocent smile and nodded.

Once the doctor and the policeman left the room Betty made eye contact with Jughead and held up a smart phone, a smug smile on her lips. Jughead gave an equally smug smile and held up and an old flip phone. Betty sat up from the hospital bed and looked at the smart phone at the same time Jughead looked at the flip phone. Wordlessly they tossed each other the phones switching them out. Betty held up the key to their handcuffs and smirked before tossing them to Jughead. She got up and passed the phone through the vents into Cheryl’s waiting hand.

“So the trick is,” she began turning to Archie, “is to give them what they want. They’re expecting a phone call, right?”

She tossed Archie the phone and watched as he calls the hospital.

Meanwhile, Jughead uses the phone he has to take a picture of himself. With that, he got to work.


End file.
